New Gun Laws in New York Result In 1,146 Additional Felony Charges This Year

Laws that create criminals out of thin air are the worst kind of laws. Such is the case with recently passed gun laws in New York City.

According to a CBS New York report, there were 1,146 additional felony arrests created in 2013 due to changes in the states gun laws. From the report,

Nearly a year after passage of New York state’s new gun law, dealer sales of popular AR-15 semi-automatic rifles have ended in New York and arrest data show more than 1,000 gun possession charges in New York City were boosted from misdemeanors to felonies because of the changes.

Meanwhile, 59 people have been charged statewide with misdemeanors for possessing large-capacity magazines or having more than seven bullets loaded in a magazine, both outlawed by the law passed last January in the aftermath of the school massacre in Newtown, Conn.

It should also be noted that those more than 1,000 misdemeanors turned felonies would most likely not have even been breaking the law in most states which allow people to possess firearms without any sort of registration and freely transport firearms in their homes and, in many cases, cars and businesses.

Of course, the proponents of the new gun laws are singing the praises of the new law and their new laws and the arrests they’ve generated. Also from CBS,

“The numbers are indisputable. The SAFE Act has enabled the state to better protect New Yorkers,” said Melissa DeRosa, spokeswoman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He pushed the legislation shortly after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead. Police said the 20-year-old gunman used a semi-automatic rifle and 30-round magazines.

DeRosa failed to mention how arresting people for simply possessing a firearm and were not actively committing a crime makes anyone safer, but what do you expect from Cuomo’s spokeswoman?